Cry Witch Prelude
by Xenolord
Summary: Five people, each from different walks of life, different backgrounds. Five souls shattered and intertwined by a singular event. These are the stories of those lives before hell on earth.


Author's Note: In an attempt to add more flare to the Cry Witch Characters, I present this.

Disclaimer: I own everyone but Zoey, Bill, Francis and Luis, and other Half-Life slash Left 4 Dead characters (Obviously.) None of the companies are mine.

Cry Witch: Prelude

Alpha Strain Prologue

The best phrase one could use to describe myself is 'child prodigy'. I was born on the twelfth day of the eighth month in the year of our Lord, 1985. My sister, Trinsha, and I are what most would call fraternal twins, we look different, but were born on the same day, her two minutes before myself. Most of the doctors who were present at our birth couldn't explain the rather unusual circumstances of our collective super intelligence.

Some blame the full moon we had that night, while others blames proper star alignment, and still others thought it a freak of genetics. Myself? I'm more inclined to believe a more... left-field theory. When the brain dies, but doesn't have the courage to completely do so and come back, there is typically mental repercussions... mental retardation and other such harsh terms. See, when Trinsha and I were born... we died shortly after, our brains giving out before life could fully be realized. We mysteriously came back twenty minutes later, all of our functions restoring to proper, if not heightened levels.

Both Trinny and I were walking and talking at six months, and by our tenth birthday, we had graduated Valedictorians from Harvard, I received a degree in biological sciences, while Trinsha received hers in metaphysical science, the study of the mind and how it affects us. The small town in which we were born hailed us as modern-day Mozarts, masters of science before we could even fully understand who we were. So, it came to little surprise to my parents when, on my twelfth birthday, I got a most unusual birthday present...

-August 12, 1995-

I sat on the floor, like any normal twelve year old would, looking with hungry eyes at the piles of paper-wrapped boxes sitting just feet from me. I kept looking up at my mother and father, waiting with bated breath for them to say I could open my presents. "Wait until your sister is up." they kept repeating, apparently not wanting Trinsha to miss out on hers, as well. Always the late riser, Trinny came in a few moments later, yawing up a storm, her messy brown hair pressed flat against her head.

"Mornin'." She groaned, yawning again. I fought back the urge to yawn myself, trying to continue feeding off the excitement of my birthday some more.

"Sit! Presents! Presents good for Jake and Trinny!" I called, trying to give her additional energy to wake up. She glanced over at the calander on the wall, clearly having forgotten what today was.

"Presents?" She muttered, reading what day it was. "Oh! Is it the twelfth already!" Suddenly awakened by a surge of energy, she found herself planted on the floor right beside me. My mother smiles to me, and my father tells us we can open our presents one at a time, and civil-like. Pbth. When am I ever not civil?

Shredding into the paper like a ravenous wolf, I pulled the box from the remains and threw it open, expecting it to be the usual t-shirt I got from them at least once a year. Inside was a map folded nicely (Clearly done by Trinsha, because both of my parents were horrible at folding maps) and placed rather ceremoniously in the center of the box. I gave a perplexed stare at my parents, who only smiled. This was leading into something, I knew it.

"This is going somewhere, isn't it?" I asked aloud, my parents only smiling and nudging me to open more. Trinsha opened one of hers, and cute pair of glasses inside. "I didn't know you wore glasses."

"Oh, they're just for show. Your dad got that idea somehow." Mother spoke, staring dad long and hard.

"What? Girls with glasses are always attractive." Trinsha put them on, looking about three years older and, fairly enough, quite the bit more attractive. I grabbed another box and tore into that, taking no festive prisoners, the box inside containing at long, flowing white lab coat, much to large for me. "You'll grow into it." My father spoke as I was practically swallowed whole by the massive coat. The next box opened by Trinsha contained the same. I took a third present and opened it with the same feral tenacity, a large (large by the standards of a twelve year old. It's much smaller to me now.) laptop wrapped in a bow. I held it up in victory. In every child's birthday, each year, is a special gift... The Gift, the Holy Grail of presents, the one that they shall cherish for years to come. That laptop was the Holy Grail of any birthday I've ever had.

Trinny opened another, getting a laptop herself. She seemed as happy with it as I was, as she spent the next few moments cuddling it like a normal twelve year old would cuddle a doll, or perhaps a toy pony. The three boxes for Trinny and I vanished rather quickly, having been viciously decimated by two eager twelve years olds, we thanked our parents for what we got, even if the map was slightly strange.

"Oh, that's not the last of them, son. There's one more for you two." My father stood up and went to the front door, opening it. "Come in, Mr. Kleiner." He spoke, letting a rather elderly man with receding ghost-white hair inside. He saw us both and smiled.

"My my my, the two little geniuses I've heard about!" He smiled and sat down with us. "Happy Birthday, you two!"

"Kids, this is a friend of a friend, Doctor Issac Kleiner, one of the researchers at Black Mesa. You've heard of Black Mesa, right?"

"Of course!" I chimed in more then happy to share what I knew. My father would, in the years leading up to, and following my graduation, regale me with stories of the Black Mesa Research Facility. "I never thought you'd come out all the way here to see us!" I continued, visibly ecstatic.

"Oh, I came out here to do much more then see you, young Mr. Ballenfield. I came out here to offer you and your sister, positions at Black Mesa. You may be young, but if what your father tells me, you'd be welcome additions to the staff." It took me a moment to grasp exactly what he was telling us. He was inviting us to join the most prestigious research facility in the continental United States and possibly the world. My heart skipped a couple dozen beats before it restarted. Trinny looked at me with this wide wonderment in her eyes.

"So, what do you say, kids?" Mother asked. The growing smile on Trinsha's face said it all.

"YES!" We both shouted in unison. Doctor Kleiner smiled and stood, motioning us to stand as well.

"I would almost hate to suggest such a thing, but would it be too much to ask for us to leave right away? I have a plane to catch, and Doctor Breen hates it when I'm late..." He muttered, looking over at my mother.

"It's up to them." She responded. I answered by dashing into my bedroom to throw together some things to pack., Trinsha running into her own room behind me, packing as well. We emerged a few moments later with a suitcase each, and dressed for travel. Doctor Kleiner was chatting with my parents, assuring them that we'd have every opportunity to call and meet with them, that a job at Black Mesa wasn't a sure-fire way of never seeing them ever again.

Unfortunately, he would be wrong about that. Black Mesa was, by far, my most enjoyable work place in my life. I called my parents three times a week when time permitted, and wrote them most every day, but I would never find the time to return to that small town. Trinsha and I would find ourselves most welcome at Black Mesa, several of the research staff setting us up with lab equipment, and ample work associates. Until, of course, 'The Incident'. An incident I'll remember until my death.

May 16, 1996


End file.
